To ensure that retail merchandise stocked upon a shelf is suitably presented to a potential customer, the merchandise may be “front faced” using what is generally known in the art as a pusher system. The process of facing often involves sliding the merchandise, which is typically situated upon a retail shelf in rows, toward a front edge of the shelf. Examples of merchandise that is typically faced include beverage containers and digital video discs.
To face the merchandise, the merchandise is loaded into a channel defined by two or more partitions. The partitions assist in maintaining the merchandise in a linear row within the channel. A pusher assembly, biases the row of merchandise forward until the front most unit of merchandise is in engageable contact with a stop located at the front edge of the retail shelf. Placing merchandise at the edge of a retail shelf is generally recommended for effective product placement, as it provides a potential customer with an easily identifiable product that is presented in a neat and aesthetically pleasing orientation. The partitions and pusher assembly work in combination to achieve this result. An exemplary design of such a pusher system is shown in U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2007/0267364 assigned to the present assignee. The present invention relates to improvements over that design.